When Borja Bastón was born, David Vidal (Puerto del Son, La Coruña, 1950) had already been training for four years. Genius and figure, unmistakable hoarse voice, Vidal doesn’t train, but is nonetheless fireproof and with a lot of energy. He doesn’t understand life any other way and at 72 he says he values friendship very much. That’s why he jumps like a spring when asked about Álvaro Cervera, the Oviedo coach. “Álvaro Cervera? They can say it very clearly, because David Vidal says it: Oviedo made a classy signing and hired one of the best coaches in Spain. He did very well in Cadiz,” assures Vidal while obviously going to football. On this occasion, the match of the Cadiz branch against Vélez. Vidal is fully authorized to speak about Cervera: he coached him in the last leg of the Cantabrian as a professional player, at Hércules in the 1997/1998 season. A 32-year Cervera veteran, due to injuries, played in just two games that season on a team that had three head coaches.
The last one was Vidal. “Cervera was a skilled and very fast winger, with a powerful lower body. He had a lot of character as a player, he helped me and commanded me a lot, but a lot. He has words and can talk, he’s a crack,” explains Vidal. who also nicknames the blue coach. “For me, with all the respect in the world, it is the ‘Admiral Cervera’, which is the best ship we have ever had,” he says, referring to the ship that belonged to the Spanish Navy and which bore the name of Admiral Pascual, Cervera and Topetes. Vidal, who has coached Cadiz among many teams, where Cervera made a name for himself as a coach, says patience is key. “Give him time, give the ‘Admiral’ time because he will end up being promoted like in Cádiz. Oviedo has been away from the First Division for a long time and needed a coach like him.”
Cervera, after that season at Hércules, played in Segunda B in Aguilas, Almería, San Fernando and Ontinyent and then retired. “He’s an honest and loving boy. I’m a close friend of him and I don’t see any flaws in him. He understands a lot about football and has modernized. I can’t think of a better coach,” continues Vidal, who recalls “leadership” of Cervera that season at Hercules.
In that team there was also Jon Pérez Bolo, former coach of Oviedo and replaced by Cervera. Both shared the costumes under the good Vidal’s orders. The Bilbao man, who was a striker, scored six goals that season. “Bolo was a high-level player, a good person as well as a good footballer. He surprised me when he became a coach, because as a child he was short of words and spoke little. He proved to be a good coach,” he is young and it will do well. He only has to do one thing: follow David Vidal’s methods,” said the coach, with his usual irony. The veteran coach remembers the good vibes in the Hercules locker room and the good relationship Cervera and Bolo had, according to his memory. “They got along very well, but because I knew how to manage the players. I took them around, to eat and wherever they were needed. You have to know how to treat players, many think they know, but few understand. And I have one thing clear: Cervera and Bolo understand football, they are two phenomena,” concludes Vidal, genius and figure.
